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A peek at rural life

An Iranian film festival from July 3-6 will showcase the works of young directors

POIGNANT IMAGES From "Avinar"

An Iranian Film Festival (3-6 July, Film Chamber of Commerce), organised by the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation in collaboration with the Culture House of Iran, Mumbai, showcases the work of mainly younger directors, following the style we now recognise as `Iranian realism.' Each day features two films (6.15 p.m. and 8 p.m.).

The Chennai festival reflects the greater freedom enjoyed by artistes in the Islamic Republic of Iran today than when auteurs such as Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf burst upon a stunned international arena with daring critiques of the theocratic anti-feminist regime through exquisitely subtle, poignant visions.

The festival opens with "Love Without Boundary" (Pouran Darakhshandeh) and "Avinar" (Shahram Asadi). They deal with the problems generated by war - drug peddling among the young and the secrets of a goldsmith blinded by chemical warfare.

"Grey" (Mehrdad Mirfalah) condemns both the old and the young, for hidebound patriarchy and the loss of moral values. An indulgent father allows favourite daughter Bita to leave home and pursue higher studies in Tehran, on condition that she marries cousin Ali when he returns from the U.S. But Bita falls in love with Farhad who forsakes her to marry an American, which guarantees his own American citizenship.

A slice of life

"Sheyda"

Don't miss "A Little Bird Freak" (Rahbar Ghanbari). Despite heavy underlining of symbols, it adopts the best in Iranian film making tradition, with a tenderness hard to achieve on the screen.

Iranian films are wonderful with children, as here when a boy adept at calling birds with his whistling is exploited by a bird catcher. The marketplace scenes are a slice of life, with petty cheatings, squabbles and skirmishes.

The film moves into a fable-like quality in slow, sure and silent strokes. It also shows that for arresting visuals, you don't need hi-tech and stereophonic explosions, only imagination. The filmmaker has obviously felt the sorrows of the child whom he portrays.

Wartime love story ("Sheyda", Kamal Tabrizi) has quiet but telling first and last scenes. "Equation" (Vahid Zadeh) looks at the discomforts bred by unacknowledged relationships. "Candle in the Wind" (Pouran Derakhshandeh) shows three young men, restless, edgy and confused as they grapple with socio-cultural changes.

The films reflect the tenor of ordinary life, better expressed in rural than urban settings. No heroics, though some have not escaped melodrama, predictability, and naiveté. What they do offer are identifiable moments for people caught in the dilemmas of a changing society, where values fluctuate, and survival is an everyday challenge.

G.R.

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